Collisionless relativistic magnetic reconnection driven by electron vortices in laser-plasma interaction
- Osaka Univ. (Japan)
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- ELI-Beamlines Facility (Czech Republic); Kansai Photon Science Institute (Japan)
Magnetic reconnection (MR) is a fundamental process in space and laboratory plasmas. The appearance of high power lasers opens a new way to investigate MR under the relativistic condition. In this paper, relativistic collisionless MR driven by two ultra-intense lasers and a pair of asymmetric targets is studied numerically via the kinetic simulations. The static magnetic fields produced by the electron vortex structures with opposite magnetic polarities approach each other driven by the magnetic pressure and the density gradient. The antiparallel magnetic fields annihilate accompanied with the topological variation and the corresponding magnetic field energy is being dissipated to the kinetic energy of the nonthermal charged particles. Besides the outflows along the current sheet, a fast particle bunch is accelerated perpendicularly contributed by the displacement current.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-09CH11466
- OSTI ID:
- 1992112
- Journal Information:
- Fundamental Plasma Physics, Vol. 6; ISSN 2772-8285
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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